


Cold Fire / Warm Ice

by LiinHaglund



Category: Weiß Kreuz
Genre: Alternate Universe, Enemies to Friends, Gen, Ignores Gluhen, Kritiker, Out of Character, post-Kapitel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2013-01-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 23:32:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4240872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiinHaglund/pseuds/LiinHaglund
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How much is a telepath worth, even if they don't function? What would Kritiker need one for?</p><p>A story about the danger of not accounting for dislike and making assumptions about loyalty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> One of the first I wrote, quality thereafter.

Ran stared into his cup of tea as if it would present answers to him. He felt momentarily like he was playing games with everybody. Like nobody knew who he was, like if he took one step in the wrong direction he would have to run for his life. But he liked the thrill.

Their usual meeting place was neutral ground, as much as that existed. Ran looked up from his cup of tea when a man sat down opposite him. “I stopped Omi from selling that orange demon of yours. Want him?” Though why he bothered more with helping the American and his plans than he bothered with Kritiker he sometimes didn't know. Probably because his life was suddenly very dull.

“Thank you. I can't,” was the dejected answer. “Not yet.”

“Why? And that blond hair color looks positively horrible on you.”

“Well, I figured it was that or red and I have enough redheads in my life. I planned to break free from Eszett for years, but I neglected to plan for a few details. Like medical care. Talents can't be shoved into any normal hospital. Least of all a fried telepath.”

“The fried part bothers me. He eats and drinks if food or water touches his lips, but he's very obviously not present,” Ran whispered. He took a sip of his tea.

“He'll come around. Eventually,” the American said with a distant look.

“And _then_ you'll pick him up?” Ran prompted hopefully. He liked Schuldig as much as the next guy, which wasn't much, but he wasn't afraid of the telepath.

“In time.”

“Why do I get the feeling I have to nurse a vegetable telepath back to his evil self, Brad Crawford?”

Crawford crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat with a heavy sigh. “He'll be safe with you. I can't keep him with me while I'm running from Eszett's other teams. They think it was a failure on my part, which it was in a way, and that the others were just following my orders. Which is half true. I'm the one in the dog house, not the rest of Schwarz.”

“How noble, all of a sudden. You're nothing but trouble, American,” Ran said lightly.

“You could stop meeting me.”

“True, but who else would I whine about being an assassin to?” Ran argued.

“If anyone were to find out we will both be shot as traitors,” Crawford smiled. “It bothers me, but I enjoy this. You've changed a good deal lately. Is it because she woke up?”

“Shot? Not you,” Ran scoffed. “You'll weasel yourself out of anything, I'm sure. I suppose it has something to do with Aya being awake. I don't have to exist just for her. Her life is in her own hands now. Which paradoxically causes me more headaches than I ever got before.”

“You sure seem to have knack for surviving, even if I am a weasel. I knew you would be useful in bringing the Elders down, but there were times when I tried to kill you.”

“With blank bullets?”

“It was all about the show for the Elders benefit. You couldn't help me kill anyone if you were dead already. And that was just once.”

“Weiss is disbanded, I might not be the person you want to talk to,” Ran changed the topic back to Schuldig. “Kritiker is reorganizing.”

“Schuldig likes you. He says you think like him.”

“I would assume he and Yoji would have more in common.”

“No,” Crawford smiled fondly. “Schuldig is very focused on the job. Yoji just wants to find love. Nagi and Omi though...”

“...that's a match made in Hell,” Ran finished with a grunt. “I know more about computers just from ignoring them than most MicroSoft engineers do.”

“Yeah, you and Schuldig will get along great,” Crawford laughed with a distant look.

“I might steal him from you.”

Crawford smiled softly. He looked different then, less cocky and sure, more of a normal man. “I've never held him on a leash. If he wants to go, he will. But I know he won't.”

Ran shrugged. He liked chatting with Brad. They had both played dirty tricks on the other, but they always gravitated back to a fragile truce to be able to keep talking. “Need anything?”

“A new team.”

“I don't think I can help with that,” Ran said slowly. Though, he had helped with things he shouldn't. A passport, a gun, a few pieces of information.

“How about purpose?”

“Ah”, Ran smiled. “The leash is off and you miss the warm house more than you like running free.”

“What of you?”

“I want to travel.”

“Travel? Why?”

“See the world, all that jazz,” Ran said. “I never have been outside of Japan.”

Crawford smiled. “I just want the little demon back.”

“I won't make any promises,” Ran said quietly. “And if you know how to keep him out of my skull I want a lesson. He doesn't stop being a telepath just because he's napping.”

Crawford gave him a cocky smile and nodded his agreement. “I can train you.”

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Schuldig woke up in a crispy bed. The type of bed that was uncomfortable by design and smelled vaguely of nothing. The room was sterile and white. A too bright fluorescent light buzzed above.

He slowly sat up, doing a quick scan of the minds in the nearby area. His eyes stung from the brightness and a headache was starting to form. He absentmindedly touched his throat only to find faint scars, not fresh wounds after the damned wire. He was a vain creature and he disliked being hurt out of principle.

 _Kritiker,_ he picked up from the people in the nearby rooms with a bit of difficulty. He was in a bunker, or similar, and it was a few months ago since he was last awake. He had brief flickers of memory of waking up before, but not being himself.

“I see you decided to wake up again,” a neutral voice said next to him. “Gonna stay awake this time?”

Schuldig turned to look at the presence he had missed completely. Ignored like the furniture in the room. He was surprised to find the man calm and not hostile. He decidedly remembered hostile.

The man gave Schuldig a glass filled with a clear liquid and a straw.

Schuldig accepted the drink only because his mouth was as dry as a desert and his throat felt sore. Thankfully it was only water. Logically speaking he could have been killed a hundred times over and chopped to tiny pieces by now, so assuming the drink was poisoned didn't rhyme well.

“Gonna kill me off now, or do I have to tell you all my dirty secrets?” Schuldig asked in a raspy voice.

“No need. Nagi did all the talking for you,” the man shrugged.

“Nagi, huh?”

“Yes. Supposedly he and Jei made a run for it.”

Schuldig wasn't really surprised. Nagi had always needed plugs for his bleeding heart. If he hadn't been such a talented little git he would have been kicked off Schwarz ages ago.

If they hadn't all been so attached to each other, and if they hadn't all but raised the boy, he definitely would have been kicked out.

Definitely.

“What happens next is up to you. Persia is hoping for you to join us.”

“Why would I?” Schuldig snarled. “I am Schwarz, not some goody two-shoes.”

“Well, maybe you should leave then.”

“Can I?” Schuldig sat straighter in the bed. Oh but he did want to leave. Right now. He wanted to go back to Brad and make sure he was alive, even though he knew the older man was still breathing. Being a telepath had perks, but nothing beat seeing it for yourself.

“Sure. Just be aware that you've spent the last seven or so months with Kritiker. Persia made no secret he has you, in case anyone wanted to make a deal to get your crazy head back.”

“In short, I'll seem a traitor to everyone.” It annoyed him that the man next to him wasn't available to read. It was like a ghost was sitting there. Like Crawford's shields, all slick and slippery and almost perfect. His head must have taken a hit. “So, the boy took his family name back? I'm almost impressed. Too bad we broke off the whole Takatori bodyguard gig.”

Schuldig sighed and flopped back down on the bed at the same time as he tossed the empty glass towards the wall. The shattered crash was a noise that pleased him. The way his weak muscles objected did not please him.

The man hadn't taken the bait at all. No. The man next to him kept sitting there, going back to read a thick novel of some sort. Like nothing had just happened.

“Aren't you going to fetch the cavalry? You have an unfriendly and very awake telepath in here.”

“No. You've woken up before and then zoned out. I'm not doing anything until you stay coherent for more than half an hour.”

“How does anyone stand being around your boring mind?”

“They don't, for the most part. You should probably rest a bit more.”

“What does Kritiker want me for?”

“Persia needs more assassins. I think. I'm not really allowed to help make decisions. Or get told what gets decided.”

“What makes him think I'll play nice? I'm more likely to turn around and bite the hand that feeds me.”

“Nobody thinks you'll play nice. The higher ups think you'll be a dangerous ally, but they also seem to think it'll be worth the risk. You'll have to ask them for the details. Most voted to throw you back into the ocean.”

Schuldig glared at nothing in particular and everything in general. A warm hand was placed on his upper arm. It was oddly familiar and reassuring.

“Rest a bit, you're as safe as you'll ever be. I don't necessarily like you, but I'm willing to give you a chance. Don't throw it away.”

 

* * *

 

Schuldig glared at Nagi who had been standing in the room when he next came to. “You betrayed Schwarz.”

“Kritiker is a better puppet master than Eszett.”

“The whole point of killing the elders was to not have any masters.”

The door opened and closed.

“You look so much like your uncle Reiji,” Schuldig snarled at Omi.

“Nice to see you awake Mastermind.”

“If you hurt him I will kill you,” Nagi said quietly.

“He's just letting off steam,” Ran said calmly. He barely even looked up from his book. Schuldig wanted to smack some fear into him. Ran had never had it in abundance, a little more would do him good. However, Schuldig had a short list of allies and Ran was at the very least not treating him like a rabid animal.

Ran was acting like he knew what was going to happen. Absurd thought. Schuldig had definitely taken a hard hit to the head. Still, those shields were so familiar. He stroked against them mentally, not to try to breach them, just to feel the cool touch. It was like home, like a house you had lived in.

“He and Farf were always unpredictable,” Nagi shrugged. “He's a trickster. He didn't always listen to orders.”

“No? He always seemed to obey Crawford from where I was standing,” Ran muttered pensively.

Schuldig wanted to argue that Ran was right, but he didn't. Nagi knew Schuldig was more than a empty head. Or he should.

“I came to see if you had chosen sides yet, Schuldig?” Omi asked casually.

Schuldig huffed. “Chosen? What choice?”

“Good. Then you'll join us,” Omi said, assuming Schuldig didn't have anywhere else to go. “You and Abyssinian will be a part of a new team. Aya-chan and Ken-kun will make up another. Kritiker will build two new teams from the ground up.”

“Aya-chan?” Schuldig asked.

“She wanted to help her brother,” Omi explained. “And it turned out she has some talents we can use.”

Ran flipped a page in the book he was reading. Schuldig snatched the book and tossed it against a wall. The anger wasn't all his, but it felt good anyway. His mind picked up on a lot of things, and at that moment he was too weak to sort out which was him and which was everyone else.

Nagi and Omi backed a step, Nagi going in front of Omi.

“Back to throwing things?” Ran said and picked a new book from the small table next to him. Schuldig turned and saw he had the exact same one in multiple copies.

“Really?” Schuldig snarled.

“Don't like being ignored?” Nagi taunted. The kid knew him too well.

“If I am with Aya here, and soccer boy is with sleeping beauty, where does that place you, Prodigy?” Shuldig asked irritably.

“Nagi and I will join Ken and Aya-chan,” Omi said. “We will also do a lot of research until we get more people recruited.”

With that they left. Ran stayed behind. Schuldig sighed.

“Stay calm, if people start dropping dead the entire place go into lockdown.”

“What if I don't want to join?”

“I didn't either, they pointed a gun to my head. Just play along for now.”

 

* * *

 

Aya refused to enter the room Schuldig was in, so Ran went to the doorway to speak to her in hushed tones. Schuldig was sulking in the bed. He didn't want to join some goody two-shoes organization.

They seemed tense around each other. Schuldig had always assumed they would be closer. Maybe they had been, maybe Ran hated that she was choosing the life of an assassin.

Ran walked back to his chair beside the bed. The man seemed well. Healthy. Not haunted and tormented, but calm and confident. Schuldig scratched his scalp and felt his hair cling to his skull. A shower was in order. But that was not important. Any movement he made made him feel the weakness in his limbs. Weakness was unacceptable.

Schuldig fidgeted the blanket. “Help me up, Abby cat?”

Ran nodded and easily helped Schuldig to stand. “Name's Ran. Where to?”

“Don't care. I'm weak and I need to move again,” Schuldig said in an irritated tone.

“There's no rush,” Ran said, even as he started leading Schuldig to the only door.

“Unless you can see the future, you don't know that,” Schuldig snarled.

“Crawford is alive and well by the way.”

“Do not insult my skills. I keep tabs on all of them.” Schuldig refrained from harming Ran. He needed him as a live crutch. He had an arm over Ran's shoulders and did his best to keep a decent pace. He was better than most of them. His body could take a lot more than regular people could. The more he pushed the better he got.

Or he died. But everything has to go some day. Crawford always pushed him to do better. He hadn't thought he could control people's actions until he tried with Nagi and later Sakura. It had been draining, but Brad always knew when enough was enough.

“I'm not called Schuldig because I play nice. Have you ever played the Sims? All the rage these days.”

“I know what it is.”

“Good. See, when you give people control over some other people and never hold them accountable for accidents, deaths and general mayhem, people will start killing for fun. Or to order things neatly. Or because someone is in the way.”

“Are you trying to convince me that you're a decent person or that you're a psychopath?”

“I never tortured animals as a child, thank you,” Schuldig said. “At least I think I didn't. I was pretty lost in my head before Rosenkreuz got me stable. Well, Brad got me stable.”

They walked a series of corridors and ended up where they had begun before Schuldigs legs gave out, but just barely.

“But you do like to play with people's reactions.”

“Everybody does if they were given the power to, that's my point. The line between sanity and insanity is more blurred than most think,” Schuldig said from where he had slid down to the floor. He didn't look Ran in the eyes. He was better than them, he shouldn't have to look up to them. “Besides, it's called sociopath.”

“That tattoo you have, does it mean anything? The numbers and letters?”

Schuldig chuckled without any trace of humor. Of course Ran would have noticed the fading ink on his ankle. He was barefoot. “Rosenkreuz. No names, just a number and a grade. It was started during the Reich and it has kept the mentality. Originally all Talents were test subjects, then we became their obedient little soldiers.”

“And the dots?”

“One for each serious breach of the rules. I have four. Nobody gets a fifth, you get a shallow grave. They said even a child should be able to hold their hand in front of them and know when they where in trouble, math skills or no.”

“How many dots do people normally get?”

“None.”

“What on Earth did you do?”

“I'll tell you one day.”

“Want me to help you shower? I'm afraid I got a speed course in Nursing 101 since the med staff won't come anywhere near you.”

“Better you than Nagi using his gift on me,” Schuldig muttered. “I hate being manhandled by telekinetics.”

 

* * *

 

Schuldig woke up to sore muscles. He muttered a few curses in the languages he knew and sat up.

Ran was not there.

A cold chill gripped him before he could control himself. The feeling lingered, but he ignored it. Just like he ignored his protesting muscles when he sat up in bed. He didn't need his babysitter. What Schuldig needed was to get out of this pickle. He tried to find Crawford's mind.

“ _Hey, come pick me up from this crazy house, Brad.”_

“ _No.”_

Schuldig growled. It was giving him an ear-splitting headache to maintain the link. “ _I could make you.”_

“ _The answer is still no. You like playing with Fujimiya, play nice this time. You're staying.”_

Schuldig felt a jolt of pain as Crawford cut him off a little too forcefully. He cradled his head until the worst of the pain had slipped away. That had sounded vague. Vague, but still an order. Staying with Ran, was he?

He got up and walked to the door. He was almost steady on his feet, too. The thin cotton clothes Ran had helped him into would have to do.

A guard motioned for him to follow as soon as he was out of the room.

He was left alone at the entrance to a training room. It was huge. An obstacle course was set up all around, ranging from imitated forest to a believable city alley. Schuldig imagined it's parts could be used individually, and he imagined Nagi having a hand in all of it. It was slightly similar to Rosenkreuz. In the middle was an open area cleared of everything but a mat. Off to a corner were gym machines.

He saw Nagi trying his level best to keep up with Ken running the obstacles. Schuldig could say a lot of positive things about Nagi, but he had never been very athletic. Aya was ahead of both of them, her slim body effortlessly flying over and under everything that was set up.

A dancer's grace. She was different from her brother. Different but similar. She had his determination and stubbornness, but none of his depressing brooding. And none of his shields.

Schuldig scanned the room again. He was tired and weak, but he hid it behind a mask of boredom.

Where was the red kitten? Omi was trying to sneak up to him. Too bad he didn't know his thoughts were blaring on full volume.

“Good morning, Mastermind,” Omi chirped next to him.

“Hey kid,” Schuldig chirped back. “I see at least one sister is back from the dead.” He was nothing if not irritating when he felt like it. Omi didn't show anything outwardly, but inside was another matter. Schuldig smirked.

“Aya-chan has been a lot of help.”

Ran landed with smooth precision on a thin rail that made a fake balcony. Confident movements. The boy who had barely been lucky enough to survive when his parents died had grown up.

“I'm sure,” Schuldig said carefully and closed his eyes. “ _When did you learn to shield, Ran?”_

Showing weakness was annoying. But those shields puzzled him.

“ _Try now.”_

Schuldig felt a shield drop as he reached for Ran's thoughts. He didn't like poking around the way he normally enjoyed it. He didn't like doing it with an audience even less. The headache made him sluggish and the pain increased the more he focused.

His eyes opened slowly and focused back on the world outside of him.

Ran left his mind open. Schuldig watched him do a series of jumps before landing and walking over to them. He caught a glimpse of Crawford in Ran's thoughts. Odd. What was the old Oracle up to?

“Maybe it's time we got you some breakfast? You seem cranky,” Ran said.

“Lead the way kitten,” Schuldig said and started walking ahead in spite of it.

Ran came up next to him. “What do Germans eat anyway?”

“Smoked Jews,” Schuldig grinned.

“That's not funny.”

“I'm not fond of rice, or fish. Or green tea,” Schuldig listed off his fingers. If he was going to camp out here he might as well lay down some ground rules.

“Bread?”

“Japanese don't know how to make bread.”

“Well, we know how to cook rice,” Ran pointed out.

Schuldig stuck out his tongue. “I prefer my food to look like food. Give Japan a sausage and it turns into a tentacled chibi with a Lolita complex. People here spend way too much time making food cute,” he ranted.

They had reached a small area housing a small kitchen and a table.

“No chairs?”

“No, and if you keep whining I'll teach you proper etiquette just to annoy you more,” Ran said.

“You're no fun, kitten,” Schuldig remarked. He needed to fix his shields. “Besides, Brad is the one who is socially presentable. I know all about etiquette, I just don't care.”

“You okay?” Ran asked after having picked out all the western foods he could find “You seem on edge.”

“If you woke up in an Eszett bunker with me or Crawford next to you, how would you feel? You're only the good guys on paper. In reality you're a killer for hire. Just like me.”

“Yes, I seem to recall you making that point before.”

“No denials? No fancy ideals to throw at me? No rehearsed speeches? How much time did you spend to make those speeches convincing anyway?”

“No, you're right,” Ran said indifferently. “And if we're being technical, this is an Eszett bunker.”

Schuldig froze up. “As in...?”

“As in, Evil Incorporated built it.”

“Just built?”

“I don't know about the details,” Ran shrugged. “Omi said Kritiker took it after defeating a faction of Eszett psychos.”

“Should have burned it. Did you have a say in teaming up with me?”

“No. I tolerate you, the others don't.”

“I took your sister.”

“I know.”

“And I made little Sakura-chan shoot you.”

“I know. Hurt like a bitch.”

“What if I turn on you? Aren't you at least a little worried?”

“I am.”

Schuldig was itching for a fight. It was practically making the air static.

Ran sighed. “I am probably more skeptical than the others about where your loyalties lie, but I can't be on the same team as my sister. I'm too busy being her older brother, and that gets in the way. She can handle herself. Ken would rather not work with me. Yohji has opted out of lethal missions, he's back to his detective work in a way. All that smoking and swallowing half the ocean was bad for his lungs in the end.”

“So,” Schuldig said quietly. “They don't want you. And they don't want me, but they want our skills.”

“Something like that.”

“What if I told you I was never expected to live past twenty? What if I told you most telepaths go crazy and go out in a bang in their teens?”

“You want to argue that you're not crazy?” Ran teased. “There's bread and cold cuts and some sort of French cheese. Best I can do today. Do you know that you sometimes project your thoughts?”

“My shields are shit,” Schuldig barked and tossed some stuff on a slice of bread at random. “They're never good, mind you, but when I'm hurt or out of it they crumble and I can't shut anything out or control what I do.”

“Can I help?”

“No,” Schuldig answered sullenly. “Maybe. I don't know. You have shields, I might be able to use them as a focus point.”

“There's juice if you want it, but I'm making tea.”

“I'm usually never hungry. Or thirsty. You eat and I'll pick up on it. Or that the guards had breakfast an hour ago. And then when I feel hungry I think it's something I picked up from someone else.”

“How do you deal with it?”

Ran seemed curious. Schuldig liked an audience more than he liked to torture. “Schedules. Or I stick to someone else's habits.”

“What else helps you?”

Schuldig considered how much he should share. Sharing nothing was the safest route. “Now now, if I tell you all my secrets you might use them against me. I'm not just a pretty face.”

He started eating by the counter. Japanese tables were not built for comfort. Nor were their beds. He wanted a big fluffy bed and someone who would give him a good massage.

“Ken and I don't always get along, but I wouldn't stop him from playing soccer. I don't care if Yohji sleeps with every woman in Japan. As long as you stay within the boundaries I'll be better off with a happy Schuldig than an angry one.”

“A happy Schuldig isn't a safe Schuldig.”

“Eat slower, you haven't had solids in a long time,” Ran cautioned when Schuldig realized his sandwich was good. “We won't starve.”

Schuldig shrugged, but did slow down. Ran said 'we' like they were a team. Maybe they were. Kritiker could die a hundred ways and twist in agony the whole time, but maybe Ran was okay.

“Any person choosing the pseudonym Guilty for themselves would be in the Not Safe category by default,” Ran mused aloud. “At the same time you always obeyed Crawford. If he called it off, you obeyed. Nagi and Farfarello were more prone to do what suited them.”

“Teenagers,” Schuldig muttered.

“I'm saying that for all your drama and games, you seem a lot more controlled.”

“The difference, kitty cat, is that Crawford didn't give a shit if I blew up a building or got thousands killed. Sanity is relative. Control is a necessity. I pity the telepath who lack it.”

“But Kritiker would mind,” Ran nodded.

“The guards watching the surveillance cameras thinks I should peek in your file, Ran,” Schuldig smirked. “Naughty kitty. I'm almost offended they didn't put one in my room. I could do such a good striptease for them.”

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Brad Crawford wasn't called the Oracle for nothing. He smiled to himself while he exited the airport. He had been to so many places he barely remembered them all and met peacefully with Talents he would rather kill, but the deed was done now.

Eszett was off his back. Rosenkreuz never would be, but that was because of Schuldig, and they weren't hostile per se. The headmaster just wanted to keep tabs on his offspring, Crawford could live with that.

A redhead in a uniform was waiting for him, but it wasn't the right shade of fire. But sometimes Ran and Schuldig were a lot alike. When the light hit the face just right and made their eyes brighter.

“Did you miss me?” Brad asked quietly with a small laugh. “I wasn't expecting a lift.”

Ran didn't reply. Not to him. “I'll take it from here,” he said and flashed an identification badge that made the agents who had tailed Brad since Beijing bow and back off.

Ran got behind the wheel of a car and Brad got in the passenger seat. He didn't trust Ran longer than he could throw him. Being as strong as he was, that was a fair bit.

“I promised the Embassy I would pick you up. You alright?”

“Thank you, and yes. Things are looking up,” Brad said. “I missed working alone, you know.”

“So I won't get any more calls from the Japanese Embassy in Beijing at odd hours of the morning? At least working alone narrows down the variables that can go wrong to just you,” Ran muttered.

“I can't make promises regarding the future, I know too well how it all works. That was very smooth on your part, though,” Brad smiled. “How did you get where I asked you to?”

“Omi asked me to a mission in the building. There wasn't a rush so I just timed it.”

“Good job, Fujimiya.”

“What is it with you and compliments?”

“Ran, even Eszett figured out that a little encouragement can go a long way. Why are you with Kritiker?”

“This is what I'm good at.”

Brad sighed. “What would be so bad about joining me?”

“I don't know. Just drop it for a bit.”

“At least give it a serious consideration,” Brad said after a while. “I would have no problem working with you. Schuldig has a gift for causing trouble, but he is a non-lethal for the majority of the time.”

“Schuldig is not stranger to killing people, Crawford.”

“As I said, for the majority of the time. Telepaths don't make good assassins. They're useful, but they have limits. At least if you want them sane.”

“Hn.”

“How is Schuldig?”

“Well enough. Complains about headaches a lot.”

“His shields are probably too weak. How are you?”

“I don't know.”

Ran was quiet during the rest of the ride. It was usually that way, Brad knew Ran could talk just as much as anyone else when the mood struck, but if the mood didn't strike the redhead with a crowbar then he was as quiet and as still as the dead.

It was easy to get used to. Schuldig loved the sound of his own voice. As much as Brad valued the telepath it was impossible to get peace and quiet around him. Ever since Schuldig had learned the difference between his own mind and the chatter of everyone else, he had demanded to be noticed one way or the other.

“Ran,” Brad said in a serious tone. “You might end up with a German sneaking into your room tonight. I'm not sure why, my visions aren't always that clear. Just don't cut his head off.”

Ran nodded. He parked the car outside a drab building and motioned for Brad to follow him inside. It looked like an apartment complex. Brad followed Ran to a door in the middle of a long corridor.

Three knocks, then a fourth a bit later.

“Why are we here?” Brad asked in a whisper. He had a very good idea of who they were meeting. Or more to the point, what.

“You'll see,” Ran answered just as quietly.

A short middle aged man in a black suit opened the door. He smiled at Ran and quickly ushered them both inside.

“What can I help you with?”

“Fake identities,” Ran said. “And he needs a passport.”

“Sure, I can have a passport by tomorrow. How is your sister?”

“She's happy.”

“And you are not.”

“You know why.”

“Ah, that mood today. Who are the identities for?”

Ran nodded towards Brad while holding out a flash drive. “Him, and his pet German.”

The older man nodded and accepted the small piece of plastic. “Staying for tea?”

“No, but he is, I have to get back to work,” Ran said. “See you later, Brad.”

And with that, the redhead left. Brad smirked.

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

When Ran came back to Kritiker's base, Omi met him at the entrance. “Where were you? Ken and Schuldig are about to rip each others throats out.”

“Finished some of the things you asked me to do. Where are they?”

“Training room.”

When Omi started running Ran followed suit.

Once there, Ran noticed Schuldig snarling down at Ken and Nagi from the top of a fake tree. He looked every bit like a pissed off cat.

“Ripping throats out, you said?”

“It was worse before.”

“Ken,” Ran shouted across the room as he walked closer. No point in agitating Ken if he was having a bad day. “What happened?”

“Schuldich happened,” Ken shouted back angrily.

Ran sighed. “Schuldig?”

“I just teased him about liking your sister,” Schuldig muttered. “Farfarello has a more even temper than this fuck up.”

“Really, for being Schuldig he was pretty well behaved,” Nagi shrugged.

“I'm not sure I trust that,” Omi said quietly.

“Well, we could probably still get the ten million for him if you'd rather get rid of him,” Ran sighed.

Both Schuldig and Nagi turned towards Ran and Omi with surprised looks.

“Rosenkreuz offered five, as long as he was breathing and would survive a flight to Europe,” Ran reminded Omi.

“We're not selling him, Aya,” Omi sighed. “He's not a dog.”

“But you don't trust him,” Ran prompted with a crooked smile.

“No.”

“You trusted me.”

“You're not like him.”

“Really? Remember how we met? After I had just killed that guy? When Yoji trapped me with his wire? Birman made me choose at gunpoint if I wanted to be her dog or die.”

Omi looked uncomfortable under Ran's steady gaze. “I remember.”

“Aya has a point,” Ken muttered. “Though I'd rather have ten million yen than him.”

“Euros,” Ran supplied. “Not yen.”

“I'm worth more than that dead,” Schuldig snorted.

“Good to know,” Ken spat and stormed off.

“Would you really consider selling us?” Nagi asked Ran in a small voice.

“I don't make the calls around here,” Ran shrugged.

Omi huffed. “You don't? You sure did that time.”

“I have a temper, I admit. If you want to use Kritiker for trafficking then you'll have to go through me.”

“I'm impressed,” Schuldig smirked while staring at Omi. “But not with you.”

“There was nothing impressive going on.”

“I didn't know kitty cat could use a gun,” Schuldig clarified. “And not with such a good aim. He's normally using his poking stick for everything.”

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

The stench of death was something you quickly learned to identify. It's a sickly sweet thing that will make you gag.

Schuldig locked the door to his new room from the inside. He wasn't sure what to do. If it had been Rosenkreuz, he would have killed Ken. But it wasn't.

He crept out the window and carefully climbed the facade to sneak through Ran's window.

It was the middle of the night and he was tired, but sleep eluded him for very obvious reasons. Very obviously dead reasons.

He cautiously crawled into bed with Abyssinian and was nearly decapitated. As soon as Ran saw that it was him he just sighed and checked Schuldig's neck for a cut. There wasn't one, but the blade had come awfully close and Schuldig shuddered.

“I could have killed you,” Ran muttered. “Stupid foreigner.”

“Yeah, well,” Schuldig started quietly, “better you than whatever corpse they put my bed.”

Ran sat up abruptly. “What?”

“Corpse, probably been dead a day or two,” Schuldig said with a wrinkled nose.

“Idiots,” Ran cursed under his breath. He shook his head and sighed. “I'll deal with it in the morning. If you want to sleep here I won't mind.”

Ran put the blade away and grabbed Schuldig in an embrace. Snuggled up to his former enemy, Schuldig decided that he liked being held. He had always assumed Ran would be more uptight, but he clearly didn't mind intimacy.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Schuldig said quietly.

“You okay?”

“I miss Brad,” Schuldig mumbled with his face pressed against Ran's chest.

“I know,” Ran whispered. “You keep nagging.”

When he woke up the next morning Schuldig was alone. The sun was shining in through a window and he was comfy and warm. Comfy? Maybe futons weren't so bad. Maybe his head was still traumatized.

He had slept well for once. Normally his sleep was restless, especially since his gift never really allowed any peace and quiet. But he had slept well, and he felt rested and alert.

Before Ran came back he had managed to change clothes and freshen up. He felt almost back to his smirking self.

Almost.

“Come on, let's go grab something to eat,” Ran said with a smile.

“Okay,” Schuldig nodded. On the way out of the building, he saw men in hazard suits. He snickered.

“I told Manx to go wake you up,” Ran said casually.

“Must have been fun.”

“Well, no,” Ran sighed. “I think my ears are still ringing from how she screamed at me afterward.”

“We should be friends,” Schuldig decided with a snicker. He draped an arm over Ran's shoulders. “I like your sense of humor.”

“I have been reliably informed that I'm incapable of normal social interactions and have absolutely no sense of humor, so consider yourself warned,” Ran countered. “What do you want to eat? There's a café run by some foreigner a few blocks down.”

“Are all the foreigners the same to you?”

“No, I can normally tell the Americans apart from the rest.”

“Oh?”

“They're bigger.”

Schuldig smirked. “ _Where is my American?”_

“ _Probably in America,”_ Ran answered. “ _That's all I caught last we talked.”_

“ _You met him recently?”_

“Drop it, Schuldig.” “ _He keeps asking about you, I'm sure he'll pick you up when he has everything in order.”_

 

* * *

 

Over the next weeks Schuldig decided he didn't like Kritiker. Kritiker sure didn't like him. Ran was fine with him being around, for some odd reason, but the others did nothing to hide their contempt.

Well, he supposed Omi thought he was useful. Not that it showed. He had recovered, but he and Ran were not sent out, and they made a good team.

Schuldig wanted to see how well Ran worked with him in a tight spot, but for now the little training runs would have to be enough entertainment. Hide and seek, capture the flag and whatever else the other team thought to challenge them to. Usually their higher numbers were in their favor.

Brad was ignoring him. That annoyed Schuldig the most. They were friends, Brad should get off his high horses and come pick him up. He was normally always there to make things smooth, or to patch Schuldig up when things went wrong.

“Don't space out on me, we're gonna win this,” Ran chided lightly.

“If you say so,” Schuldig said and focused back on the game. They were in an unused part of the bunker, the two teams trying to outsmart the other. “They're all asleep.”

“Good.”

“Nagi will wake easily, tie him first, then Ken. I'll take Aya and then Omi.”

Ran easily climbed up the furniture in the room they were in and peeled off a ventilation grid. They weren't screwed to the wall, just attached with hooks. Sloppy workmanship, those wouldn't survive an earthquake. Schuldig followed close behind. They had been patient and waited for the others to tire themselves out.

The grid on the other side of the wall had no trap attached. Ran carefully took that down and left it in the shaft.

There were plenty of traps once they were in the room, so the short distance took a long while to sneak through. They used plastic straps to quickly bind the four. Schuldig was surprised they continued to sleep through it, but then it had been a long day. Days, actually.

Schuldig retrieved a checkered piece of cloth from Omi's pocket and tied it around his head. That was that, then. They'd have to give that cloth to Birman to call off the game and win.

They both sneaked back out the way they had come. The grids were replaced and there was no trace that they had ever been in the other room. Smooth.

“ _If we move that shelf there's a door leading out,_ / Ran supplied. /I _think they've earned a little timeout for tormenting you so much.”_

Schuldig nodded. “ _Why stick by me?”_

“ _Oh, please. You're not as bad as you want people to think.”_

Schuldig smiled. There was indeed a door behind the bookcase. He carefully watched for alarms, but there was just the standard security. No cameras.

Most cameras had been removed when Kritiker learned Schuldig could peek into the mind of the guard monitoring them and easily see things he shouldn't know. But judging by the dust this area was unused. The techs might have missed it.

Once they were out they casually strolled through a wooded area of a park before reaching the newly built cover building. The bunker was where things were planned and where everyone trained. This building looked like any other apartment complex overlooking an overgrown park.

Schuldig still had a small room. He was just never there. Ran's room was safer if he didn't want kittens playing tricks on him. He had to sleep too sometimes, and for some reason he slept wonderfully well curled up with Abyssinian.

They both headed to Ran's room. The back way, of course, climbing the balconies and sneaking in through a window. Schuldig hadn't used the door since he was well enough to stand on his feet a full day.

The light was flicked on when they were inside, but it was not done by either of them.

“How nice of you to drop by,” Schuldig snarled at Brad.

“Hush, and pack. Both of you,” Crawford said quietly. “When Birman finds those four she'll set off a trap.”

“And?” Ran questioned coolly.

“They set a few lethal ones.”

Schuldig snickered.

“What does that have to do with me packing?” Ran asked calmly.

“They'll blame us, nein? Somehow it's always my fault,” Schuldig muttered.

“Before you start arguing,” Crawford said to Ran, “don't. There's no time. Put on street clothes and pack. You won't be safe here.”

Schuldig nudged Ran to get him moving. They said Schuldig had no shame, but Ran stripped and changed clothes like it was no big deal and grabbed two already packed bags from the back of the closet, tossed one to Schuldig, and then retrieved his katana from its rack.

Ran took out a shoebox from a high shelf just as Schuldig was pulling his shoes on and gave that to Schuldig as well. Crawford was getting anxious so he just grabbed the box and opened it as he walked. Two guns. A few clips. Loaded and well cared for. Schuldig pocketed all of it.

“Where have you been?” Schuldig asked. “Am I really worth that little to you, Brad?”

“China, Europe, a lot of places. The Elders may be dead, but all the others are alive and well,” Crawford said. “I've been busy. And I couldn't leave you in a normal hospital. You know that.”

“Stop,” Ran said. “If we go out the way you came in we'll run into guards. Take the next door to the left.”

“The underground garage?” Schuldig questioned.

“I have Omi's code. And there are nondescript cars with keys in the ignition.”

“Were you in trouble before, Fujimiya?” Brad asked. “You sure seem to have a way out planned.”

“Not in more trouble than normally; I helped create the evacuation plans.”

Schuldig smiled. “So, with Nagi and Farf gone I vote we adopt Aya here.”

Ran dumped his backpack and katana in of one of the newly polished cars. “Do I get a say?” he asked and got behind the wheel.

“You seem fine with going with us,” Brad commented as he climbed into the passenger seat with an amused smile.

“Helping you two nut jobs get away is one thing,” Ran said casually. “Joining you is another.”

Schuldig made himself comfortable in the back. “Brad, convince him. I'm going to nap. You owe me after all this.”

Crawford shrugged.

Ran started the car and soon they were on a busy street. “Where to?”

“Airport.”

“I hope you have a passport.”

“Three,” Crawford confirmed. “They will kill you.”

“I've had it coming for years,” Ran shrugged.

“I thought you wanted to travel?”

“Sneaky, aren't you?”

“Say yes.”

“Okay.”

 

 


End file.
